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In Short: Tristar can't go wrong on DVD. Another very nice disc.
The Movie:
Nicholas Cage stars in John Dahl's western thriller, a well-reviewed film that never got a theatrical release, or at least much of one. It's a small thriller with excellent performances, some great twists and excellent dialogue.
Cage stars as a drifter who walks into the wrong bar at the wrong time and is mistaken for the killer the bar owner has just hired to kill his wife. He takes the advance on the job, then goes out to meet the wife. She, of course, plays the drifter to kill her husband, so he finds himself in the middle of their schemes against each other. That's not all, as the original killer(Dennis Hopper) finally comes to town.
Cage's character keeps trying to leave the town, but finds himself thrown back in time and time again due to various problems he faces, all of which are believable, but it's the film's sort of nightmare quality that has him brought back time and time again into the middle of the situation. Cage plays the drifter who doesn't know what's really going on, but plays it like he does, quite well.
Performances are all excellent and it's another great film by John Dahl, who also did one of my favorite films of last year("Rounders"). It's a top-notch thriller.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although there's a few small flaws, this is the usual excellent work from Tristar. There's a 1.85:1 letterboxed image as well as a full frame edition and both look quite good. Colors are rich, pure and well saturated throughout. Images are clear and crisp, with good detail. Flesh tones are not only accurate, but good looking and not pale. Even scenes at night are clear and crisp, with good detail.
The only flaw that I really viewed in this image was an occasional bit of grain. There are no instances of shimmering or pixelization and the print itself is free of scratches.
SOUND: "Red Rock West" is mainly dialogue based, but it's occasionally punctuated by a little gunfire, a bit of thunder or other action. Dialogue sounds excellent, clear and never thin or compressed sounding. There's a score, but it's not used much and pretty much stays to the far back of most scenes.
MENUS:Basic film-themed menus based around the poster art.
EXTRAS:
Commentary::A commentary by director John Dahl, writer Rick Dahl and editor Scott Chestnut. It's a very informative commentary talking about not only working with Nicholas Cage, but about how they worked with the script and production(when they couldn't shoot in Montana, they had to move to Arizona). There's also details on the rehersal process and how choices were made in the final film to act in certain scenes. It's enjoyable as well to hear the choices of the editor, especially on certain scenes where he talks about the way to cut together an action scene. What I found most interesting was the commentaries talk on exactly why this picture was originally not going to get a theatrical release and how it went about finally getting a small release.
Final thoughts: Very good movie, very good commentary, very good DVD.
The Film: 90/A- = (360/500 possible points)
Video: 88/B = (352/400 possible points)
Audio: 85/B = (340/400 possible points)
Extras: 86/B = (258/300 possible points)
Menus: 75/C = (150/200 possible points)
Value: 87/B = (261/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1721/2100
Average:82%/B
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